12/52 Books Read!

Mar 21, 2014 17:00

I picked up Helene Wecker's The Golem and the Jinni when it was on sale at Amazon, and it was a good choice. I really enjoyed it, and highly recommend it! The Golem and the Jinni is, no surprise, about a golem and jinni who end up in New York City at the turn of the 20th century. Chava the golem was created to be a wife to her master, but when he dies on the journey to New York, she is left masterless and must make her way in New York on her own without any orders to follow. Ahmad the jinni is accidentally released from his prison in a copper flask by a tinsmith in New York's Little Syria, and remains bound to human form and to a wizard he can't remember. They both have to figure out how to live in the world, together and apart.

The book effortlessly covers a lot of ground: literary fiction, fantasy, magical realism, romance, historical fiction. Even better, it doesn't really short change any of those genres. Plus, Chava and Ahmad are great characters whose natures are vividly rendered and make complete sense. Through them, the book explores some weighty themes of free will and personal responsibility without turning either of them into lifeless symbols. The book is also a wonderfully detailed look at life for recent immigrants in New York City at the turn of the 20th century.

I was really impressed by this book, especially since it's a debut, and I'm looking forward to whatever else Helene Wecker writes.

This entry was originally posted at http://yasaman.dreamwidth.org/449733.html, with
comments there.

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